Proper dental hygiene requires not only brushing of the exposed surfaces of teeth but also clearing interdental spaces between adjacent teeth. Failure to clear deposits from these hidden surfaces may result in excessive tooth decay. Even worse, naturally occurring bacteria in the mouth can act on deposited food particles between the teeth causing plaque which can eventually result in destructive periodontal disease.
Periodontal disease, in many instances, may be avoided through regular dental flossing. Until recently, this was accomplished by winding a length of dental floss around one finger of each hand and inserting the span of floss held between the fingers into the interdental space. This could prove very cumbersome as it often involved insertion of parts of one or both fists into the mouth. Various floss holders or frames have been designed to address this problem. The holders or frames may be driven by electrically generated oscillatory motion. However, a compact and easy to use automatic dental flossing device having a convenient floss advancing mechanism was not available.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,253 which issued to Moore discloses a device having a forked end on which a short strand of fresh dental floss is tightly secured. One disadvantage of this device is that the user must manually replace the strand of floss each time he desires a fresh length.
Improvements in this general concept have included different approaches to mounting spools on the device to provide for advancement of fresh floss. The problem with many of these devices is that during initial set up or replacement of spools, the user must thread a length of dental floss through a tortuous series of enclosures, recesses and eyelets. U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,702, issued to Grollimund and U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,695, issued to Urso disclose devices having this drawback. The device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,534,745, issued to Waters dispenses with the need for intricate floss threading but requires the user to open a small hinged door before turning a hand knob to advance the floss.
In general, all of the above prior art devices are cumbersome, and lack features necessary for effective interdental cleaning. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an effective dental flossing apparatus having a means whereby oscillatory motion may be imparted to the working section of the dental floss.
It is another object of the present invention to eliminate the need for a user to manually handle or thread a length of dental floss.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a simple one step method for advancement of fresh dental floss to the working portion of the apparatus.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a small, lightweight flossing attachment which fits easily into the user's mouth, and can access difficult-to-reach molars.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a disposable flossing attachment for improved hygiene.
The above problems are solved by the flossing attachment of the present invention. Other objects and advantages of the invention are summarized below and described with reference to the drawings.